Newcastle United are top of the league but its a position that the club might not wish to hold for long.

As the club sit at the top of the Championship they also retain the top spot in the football banning order league of shame.

Magpies fans are the subject of 124 football banning orders according to Home Office figures released today.

That’s more than double the amount of any other club in the top five divisions of English football.

Chelsea have the next most at 60 followed by Millwall with 57, Wolverhampton Wanderers with 52 and Liverpool with 49.

However, only 12 of Newcastle’s 124 banning orders were issued last season.

And the club say their table-topping status is a hangover from the infamous 2013 Tyne-Wear derby , which saw anti-social behaviour on an unprecedented scale - including a horse punched in the face.

Aleksandar Mitrovic of Newcastle (45) celebrates with his shirt off to a fan who invaded the pitch after scoring the equalising goal during the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Sunderland (Image: Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)

“The derby day disorder in April 2013 saw more than a hundred people arrested and the majority of the banning orders in the figures you see today are still those in place from that fixture.

“Following that match we realised that we needed to change the way we policed football in the North East and that more needed to be done to engage fans without asking them to lose the passion for the sport.

“We set up the dedicated Football Neighbourhood Policing Team and they have involved football fans in the planning of high profile games and engaged with young football fans who are often at the forefront of any disorder.

“That proactive work has seen the number of arrests at our football matches fall dramatically and huge credit has to be given to the fans for the way they have worked together with police.

“Violence and disorder inside the stadium itself is extremely low and any issues we do have often involves people who have not even attended the football.

“We realise more work still needs to be done and we will continue to work with fans, the local authorities, key partners and the football clubs to clamp down on football disorder in this region.”